After tough season last winter, flu vaccine push begins

Many employers around the city have flu shot clinics for their employees. A volunteer for Memorial Hospital gets a shot from Christian Bracnaro, R.N., during a clinic for their employees and volunteers at Memorial Hospital Healthlink on Monday, October 14, 2013. All employees at Memorial Hospital, a part of the University of Colorado Health, are required to get a flu shot with a few exceptions. (Jerilee Bennett/The Gazette)

A little more than half of the Americans who were vaccinated from the flu last winter avoided infection. A new vaccine aims to give that effectiveness rate a booster shot.

On the heels of a difficult flu season, health officials this month began their annual vaccination push - in the process, touting a vaccine that protects against four strains of the virus, rather than three.

Last winter, Colorado suffered one of its worst flu seasons in a decade when 1,530 people were hospitalized, according to the Colorado Department of Health and Environment. Not since the 2009-2010 flu season - which featured the H1N1 flu pandemic - did health officials tally more flu hospitalizations across the state.

Last year in El Paso County, 161 needed to be checked into a hospital due to the virus, the department said.

The H3N2 virus proved particularly severe against those 65 and older in Colorado, while an influenza B strain caused an uptick in child hospitalizations, said Rachel Herlihy, the state's deputy director for disease control and environmental epidemiology.

Those age groups typically fare worse during flu season, said Bill Letson, El Paso County's medical director. But health officials stress that everyone 6 months and older should get a shot - due to the fact that anyone who's sick, regardless of age, poses a threat to infants or the elderly.

"Everybody in between, it makes sense to get immunized as well, mostly because of the way the virus gets moved around the community," Letson said.

Myriad factors play into whether vaccines work each year among different age groups. Chief of these lies in the fact that the virus strains placed in vaccines are different every year. As the virus evolves, researchers must predict how the strain will adapt from the previous version, and cater the vaccine to fit each evolution.

"There's a huge amount of fairly sophisticated and educated guesswork that goes into this," Letson said.

During the 2012-2013 flu season, the vaccine had a 56 percent overall effectiveness rate from Dec. 3 to Jan. 19, which roughly coincided with the virus's peak, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But the effectiveness rate varied greatly among age groups.

About 20 percent of the vaccinations available in the U.S. feature the new, beefed-up vaccine, Herlihy said.

Also new this year: A vaccine made without first growing the virus in chicken eggs, a major advance for those who decided against flu shots due to allergies.

Doctors say there's no excuse for people who are afraid of needles as a nasal mist is available. All nasal mist vaccines carry the four-strain version, called the quadrivalent flu shot, Herlihy said.

There's also a shot available that involves a smaller needle - one that only pierces the skin, without digging into the muscle.

Even with all this preparation, however, it's anyone's guess as to whether this flu season is any better or worse than last season.

"It's really hard to say whether or not we'll see that same picture this year," Herlihy said. "We never really know."

- El Paso County Public Health offers flu shots, with prices varying depending on health care coverage. To make an appointment, call 578-3199

STATE RATES FOR

FLU VACCINATION

2012-2013 flu season

All ages: 48.3 percent

Younger than 18: 58.4 percent

18 and older: 45.2 percent

65 and older: 72.1 percent

COLORADO DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND

ENVIRONMENT

During the 2012-2013 flu season, slightly less than half of Colorado residents received the flu vaccine. - Doctors hope the promise of a new and improved vaccine beefs up that figure. - This month, health departments began their annual push to vaccinate Coloradans against the flu - a virus that proved particularly troublesome last winter by hospitalizing 1,530 across the state. - To offer better protection, a new version of the shot - one protecting against four strains of the virus, rather than three - will be available for the first time. And, as in years past, people can choose to get the flu vaccine through a nasal mist instead of a needle. - Exactly how people receive the vaccine matters little, doctors say, so long as they get it.